Health Plans Influenced by Costs and Concerns
February 2011
The Department of Health and Human Services announced this week that one facet of the
medical coverage bill passed earlier this year may be revised in order to balance it's cost/benefit ratio.
The Class Act, a long-term care program designed to protect workers in the event that they become ill or injured, may be too expensive to keep as it is in the bill. According to President Obama's deficit commission, it needs to be repealed or reworked.
This particular
health plan is currently set up to pay injured or sick workers $50 dollars per day after they have paid into the program for a minimum of 5 years. The program is set to begin in 2012, two years before the rest of the health care bill goes into effect.
However, the fear is that as a health plan the Class Act won't be able to sustain itself. Since it is written into the bill that it would be shut off should it cost more than it accumulates in premiums, opponents are arguing that it's not a medical coverage plan with long-term potential.
Facts on:
Class Act Medical Coverage
Did you know...
Revisions are underway to revise this workers' health plan due to budgetary concerns.
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However President Obama and the HHS would prefer to revise the Class Act instead of repealing it. One idea includes raising the income level at which participants can enter. Another includes raising premiums.
The Class Act mostly provides services that other health plans don't cover, including home
health care, nursing-home facilities, and transportation for workers who are seriously injured or otherwise incapacitated, and unable to work any longer.
It is an addition to the overall medical coverage bill passed last year that was engineered by the late Senator Ted Kennedy, which may explain its importance to Democratic lawmakers.
However, if Republicans are successful in repealing the health care bill, or in limiting its reach by cutting funding, this particular addition to the proposed health plans for workers would likely be among the first to go.
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